Knitting-machine



myimprovement the speed safely attained on UNITED STATES PATENT tries.

BENJAMIN F. SHAW, or LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

,KNITTING-MACHINII.

SPECIFICATION forming part of .Letter Patent No. 224,046, dated February 3, 1880.

. Application filed May 26,1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN F. SHAW, of Lowell, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Knitting-Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification. I

g This invention relates to knitting-machines, andis an improvement on that class of machines represented in United States Letters Patent No. 147 ,7 72, February 24, 187 4, to which reference may be had. The said machine is of the circular class, and is especially designed for making ribbed cuffs or tops for knitted garments, the cuffs or tops being made of any desired length, with welts and slack courses, and without stopping the machine.

The object of this present invention is to render it possible to run the knitting mechanism and cause it to operate at a certain speed when forming the slack or loose course, or it and the welt, and then to run the mechanism at a greater or higher speed for the plain part of the cuff, thereby greatly increasing the productive capacity of the machine.

The speed at which this improved machine is made to run when the plain part of the cuff or ribbed top is being knitted is so great that the yarn would break if the same speed were maintained while knitting the loose course or the welt.

Having in view thepatent hereinbefore referred to, to which this present invention is shown as connected as one embodiment thereof, I have provided or combined with the needle-controlling pattern wheel or surface (which formed already a part of the said patented machine, and which determines the production of the loose course and welt) a speedchanging pattern-surface, which I have introduced to immediately engage the devices I have applied to effect changes of speed, in order that the said pattern-surface and knitting mechanism. on the one hand and my speed changing mechanism and its pattern-surface on the other hand may always have a fixed working relation to each other.

Without-myimprovement the speed at which the said patented machine may be run safely is about fifty-five revolutions per minute. With all the plain part (about five-s'ixths of the whole) is about eighty per minute, while on that small proportion occupied by the loose course and welt the speed is reduced to,fortya rate even more advantageous than the low but higher single rate before mentioned.

By the average increase in the speed result ing from my improvement the production is increased about forty per cent., and the amount of imperfect work is sensibly diminished.

My improvement is for giving fast and slow speed alternately, while the driving-pulley 11" has only a single rate of speed. The slow speed will be the same as that derivable from the shaft of the machine considered as without my improvement. The fast speed will be derived from the interposition of my improvement as between the shaft and the knittinghead.

It is obvious that the rate of speed of the shaft, or the slower speed, will be determined by the size and velocity of the pulleys from which the power is derived, and these are subject to change to meet different requirements.

I have so arranged the parts'that at one course before the loose course the speed is reduced, at one course after the loose course it is increased, at one course before the welt it is reduced, at one course after the welt it is increased again, and it continues at this its higher rate until at one course before the next succeeding loose course it is reduced again, and so on. 3

In the said patented machine, where several heads are driven by the same shaft, one set of my speed-changing mechanism is ap plied for each of the heads, so that each head is left just as independent of every other as it was before.

Where only one head of a knitting machine is to be driven from one shaft, and it is desired, in order to stop the head, to stop the shaft itself, mymeehanism is so constructed and applied to the shaft as to serve as a loose pulley having a clutch for engaging a fixture upon the shaft. In this mode it becomes a loose nor shall I make, broad claim to the different parts as a mechanical movement, because such claim has been made in that application.

Figure 1 represents, in side elevation, sufficient of the knitting-machine shown in the United States Patent No. 147,772, of E. Hewitt and S. Wilkins, dated February 24, 1874, to illustrate this my present improvement; Fig. 2, a plan view thereof; and Fig. 3' is a side elevation, showing the Hewitt and WVilkins knitting devices with levers iuterme diate between them and the needle-controlling pattern wheel or surface; and Fig. 4 is a plan view of a part of the said patented machine.

Reference being had to the drawings forming a part of this specification, B is intended to represent a frame-head or knitting-head, such as described in the said patent by the same letter, and which is to be revolved to perform knitting, it carrying the frame-needles.

The frame-work a of the machine carries a shaft, 12, upon which is fixed a collar, to, provided with an embossment, c, of sufficient size to receive the stud d, (in this case screwed into it,) which serves as the axial bearing of the intermediate beveled gear, 6, which is held in working position by the head of the said stud. The outer side of this intermediate gear is provided with ratchet-teeth e, for en gagin gthe pawl f,which pawl, seated by the spring g, prevents the movement of the intermediate gear by the resistance of the work of the machine opposed through the gear g. The pawl f is pivoted to the head of stud 01, whose screw is cut in that direction which will enable the pawl to prevent it from working loose.

At one end of the collar a, and engaging the intermediate 0, is the beveled gear h, loose upon the shaft 1). This gear is provided with the lug 1', through whose contact with projection j of the tilting bar it is stopped. This tilting bar is pivoted at its lower end in a stand provided with a rubber pad, 0 for lessening shock, and by standing upright and having scarcely any but pivotal friction it is moved very easily, and yet may have all the weight of material necessary for strength.

At the other end of the collar to is the bevelgear g, having a sleeve, provided with a' groove entered by the arm or stand Z, to prevent lateral movement of the sleeve. This sleeve has upon its outer end clutch-teeth m, to be engaged by clutch-teeth n of the hub 0 of the sleeved gear 12, which, through a suitable shipping-lever to be placed in groove 0", will move the said sleeved gear p into and out of engagement with toothed ring 8, so as to give motion to or stop the knittin g-headB, of which this toothed ring forms a part.

The pattern-wheel E, intended to accord in purpose or function with the wheel E in the said patent, is provided with notches or teeth t for the dog G, which is advanced by means of the cam to acting upon arm G of the upright shaft or, to which an arm, G of the dog .tion of the ring "tlieother cam, I,

G is preferably adjustably attached, so that the said pattern-wheel is turned upon its center the distance of one notch at each revolu- In the patent referred to two wheels are shown and described; but I have herein represented but one as being necessary to illustrate, in connection with the said patent, this my invention.

The needle-controlling pattern-wheel E, as in the patent, is provided with a series ofcams, H H, and a cam, I.

The cams H and H as in the said patent, act to draw down the needles of the head B, so as to form the slack or loose course, and

acts to operate the horizontally-placed machine-needles as in the said patent, so as to make the welt. In the required relation to-these cams to act at the right times I have introduced and placed the cams M and M they constituting the patternsurface forindicating when the change of speed shall take place These cams, brought by the revolution of the needle-controlling patternwheel E into contact with the incline 3 of the swinging bar N pivoted at a, move the outer end, 41 of said bar in a direction away from the knitting-head B, and this movement, through the connection of the said bar with the tilting bar 70 at 4, moves it so that the lugj is drawn from engagement with the lug i of the gear h andliberates the said gear. Upon the passage, respectively, of the cams M M the projectionj of the tilting bar is, by the spring a or otherwise, re-engaged with the gear h, and the said gear is thereby stopped. The point when the tilting bar shall be moved out and the speed reduced is determined by the situation of the inclines 00 01: of the cams M and M as related to the loose-course cams H and H and welt-cam l. The length of time durin g which the tilting bar shall be held out to cover the production of the loose course and the Welt is determined by the length of camsurfaces 0 c of the said cams M and M While the gear h is held by the bar 70 the in- IIO termediate 0, carried around bodily by the shaft, turns upon its own axis in consequence of the engagement of its teeth with those of the now stationary gear h. In thus turning upon its own axis it gives to the gear 9 a speed exceeding that of its shaft 1).

In the construction shown in this instance of this invention, the two side gears being of the same size, the increase of speed is one hundred per cent-i. e., the speed is doubled. Upon the liberation of the gear h the pawl and ratchet of the intermediate prevent the latter from turning away from the resistance opposed by the work through the gear 9, and thus practically lock, for the time being the gear g to the collar to and compel it to revolve at the speed of the shaft b, derived from its prime motor (1 the slack or loose course and welt being knitted at this slow speed, while, when the plain part of the ribbed top or cuff is being knitted and the fast or high speed is made available, the gear h is held fast. The spring G throws pawl G backward, and the springpawl e prevents back motion of the patternwheel E by engaging its toothed part.

The cams or inclines H, H and I will, in this present invention, operate upon the lower ends of levers H I 1 and the lever H at its upper end, acting at the proper time to press upon the stem of a star-screw, which is attached at itslower end to an incline or cambit, 11 will lower the said incline and the frame-needle bits as they successively pass under it during one revolution of the head, thus causing the frame-needles to draw a longer loop while making aslack course, each incline making one slack course, one to cut ofi by and the other to run on by.

The lever I has a pin at its upper end, which takes into a slot in the outer end of a doubleended lever, 1 which moves on an axle carried by the suspending rod and axle O of the machine-head, which axle is out partly away and grooved out, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3, to allow of the to-and-fro movements of the inner end of the lever 1 which takes into a slot in the inner end of a cam-bit, K, which slides horizontally in the machine-cam K, of the usual construction, which throws out the machine needle-bits L, such bits being moved inward by a cam-plate, M, which is carried by a bracket, M, adjustable in the machine-head. This bracket is grooved on the under side to receive a sliding cam-plate, N, which is slotted to receive a stud, and is prelslsed upon by a spring carried by the bracket The lever I is provided with a spring, which is attached to it and also to the upper end of the axle of the ratchet-wheel. This spring holds the levers I and I and cam-bits K and N in theposition seen at Fig. 3, while the ordinary ribbed work is being made; but when a welt is being made the lower end, I,- is raised by the incline I, such movement pressing in the cam-plate N and the double-ended lever I the inner end of which draws in the cam-bit K, so as to place the needles carried by the bits L in such a position within the ring of frame-needles that they cannot take a loop from the frame-needles during the making of three courses, which being completed, the

1 machine needles are projected outwardl for making the ordinary work, which is continued until the top is knitted the required length and the incline H again comes under the end of the lever H; then a slack course is made, then two or more courses of ordinary work,

then another slack course, and immediately afterward another welt is formed as before, and so on.

I have herein illustrated but one form of speed-changing device; but it is obvious that the object to be accomplished by me may be carried out by other devices than those shown by equivalent known devices without departing from my invention.

I claim-- 1. In a knitting-machine for knitting tubular cuffs or ribbed tops, a needle-controlling pattern-surface adapted to control the needles to produce the slack or loose course and the welt, combined with mechanism to rotate the knitting-head at one speed and a speed-changing mechanism and a pattern-surface to control its times of operation, to thereby automatically increase the speed of the knittinghead when knitting the plain part of the cuff or top, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. In a knitting-machine, pattern surface, combined with a rotating shaft, two beveled loose pinions thereon, an intermediate ratchet-gear between them, and pawl to prevent it from rotating in but one direction, combined with a lever or stop adapted to engage and hold one of the said beveled pinions in fixed position, and connecting mechanism between the said lever and pattern-surface for moving it, substantially as and for the purpose described. i

In testimony whereof I have signed my witnesses.

BENJAMIN F. SHAW. Witnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, N. E. WHITNEY.

a speed-changin g name to th1s specification 1n the presence of two subscribing 

